Tag Archives: Christianity

St. Alphonsus Liguori: August 1

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Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) was born near Naples, Italy, into a noble family. He began life as a lawyer but gave up law to become a priest and devote himself to bringing the gospel to the poor. His sermons and instructions were simple. “I never preached a sermon that the poorest old woman in the congregation didn’t understand,” he claimed. In 1732 he founded the Redemptorists, the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer. 

A prolific writer, poet and musician, Alphonsus authored a series of devotional books on Mary and important works on moral theology.  He advocated leniency and mercy towards people, steering a course between severity and laxity.  In hearing confessions, he said he never denied anyone absolution. We can see why he’s an example for pastoral workers today.

 In 1762, he became bishop of Sant Agata dei Goti, a small diocese near Naples, where he worked to reform the clergy and renew its people in their faith. In 1775 he resigned his bishopric because of his health, but continued writing religious and devotional tracts till his death in 1787. In 1816 he was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI. Pope Pius IX declared him a doctor of the church in 1871.

“Hasn’t God a claim on our love? From all eternity God has loved us. ‘ I first loved you. You had not yet appeared in the light of day, nor did the world yet exist, but already I loved you. From all eternity I have loved you.’

God gave us a soul endowed with memory, intellect and will; he gave us a body equipped with the senses; it was for us that he created heaven and earth and all things. The truth is the eternal Father went so far as to give us his only Son. 

  By giving us his Son, whom he did not spare precisely so that he might spare us, he bestowed on us at once every good: grace, love and heaven; for all these goods are certainly inferior to the Son. He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for all of us: how could he fail to give us along with his Son all good things?”

The prayer for his feast day points out it’s our turn to do what Alphonse’s did:

O God who constantly raise up in your church new examples of virtue, grant that we may follow so closely in the footsteps of the Bishop Saint Alphonsus in his zeal for souls as to attain the same rewards that are his in heaven.

He Loved Us: Dilexit Nos

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When I typed in “Sacred Heart” with “Pope Francis” on the Vatican website yesterday, I got 1826 results. In his 13 years as pope, Francis referenced the Sacred Heart of Jesus that many times in his public statements. . He did it in talks to religious communities dedicated to the Sacred Heart who came to Rome for a general chapter, to representatives of hospitals, universities and places associated with this devotion. There is even a reference to the Sacred Heart in a talk the pope gave on artificial intelligence.

His Encyclical Dilexit Nos, written last October,  is a long work that surely reflects years of thought on this mystery.  Francis believed a  world increasingly heartless needed to be reminded of God’s love.

It’s a work well worth reading. I took away a number of things from Dilexit Nos on the symbolism of the heart. For one thing, Pope Francis cautions  against being fixed on one artistic representation of this mystery. The meaning of the Sacred Heart can be expressed in many ways, not just the symbolic heart or the image of Christ showing us his heart that usually recalls this mystery.

The gospel at Mass today of the Shepherd searching for the lost sheep is an image of the love of God for us. The sign my community the Passionists wears is a symbol of God’s infinite love. The pope is his letter sees a sign of that love in a mother who takes her little child into her arms after the child has done wrong as an example. No matter what her child has done, the mother still loves.  The love of God takes many forms; the heart symbolizes them all.

I also like the pope’s observation that devotions change over time. The devotion of First Friday Mass and Communion originally was a response to Jansenism that saw humanity unworthy to approach Jesus present in the Eucharist. 

Today, as so many ignore the Eucharist, the pope sees the devotion calling us to remember this Sacrament of God’’s Love.

 Kingdom of “The Least”

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     Lent is a time for us to face up to how very much our God loves us. This is who our God is. Because of this, Lent is also our time to face up to to the hurt that we give to Our Beloved One whenever we behave in unloving ways. We can begin by looking at the commandments that our Church teaches us and examining our conscience.  In the Gospel for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent our Lord warns us: “Whoever breaks the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Ouch! I look at the Ten and see how I fall short in fulfilling them, and at times provide a bad example for those around me. I am certainly one of “the least”. Sadly I am not alone. So many of us are in the same boat. And yet Our Lord still includes us in His Kingdom. The least, but still there. Like Fr Victor says, Our Lord has not given up on us!

     How can we help God get us out of that hole? Perhaps we can begin by approaching our Creator with humility and trust. In the powerful Gospel for Saturday of this same week, we hear Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The attitude of the Pharisee immediately places him next to me as one “of the least!” He has been trying to be “good”, and he feels joy and comfort in the presence of God, especially in his House. This is good. So many of us Christians walk into Mass full of hope and gratitude. But oh! That cardinal sin of pride, the failure to love our neighbor as ourselves!

     The tax collector seems to have the better attitude, full of shame, contrite, totally surrendering to the judgement of God. He knows that he certainly is one of the “least”. I’ve always said, “I want to be like him,” in all prayer, specially during the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Today, though, Fr Victor pointed out that this tax collector so far has failed to know how incredibly great is the Love God has for him. This is what our Lord Jesus came to teach. At least the tax collector has a glimmer of belief in the mercy of God. It’s a good beginning, and God exalts him for that. 

     Sometimes at Mass I feel like the Pharisee, satisfied with my efforts and full of gratitude for God’s Love and presence in my life. The Celebration of the Mass seems like such a joyful time and I wonder why so many fellow worshippers have such long faces! I should know better, because there are times when I walk into Church with that same unhappy mood! All I know is that I am still one of “the least” and I’m not proud of it. I wonder how far down the list I am? Does God keep lists? Who is the least of the least?

     I was sitting at the Monastery Chapel thinking about these things and my eyes suddenly looked up to the crucifix up front, and I began to cry. My beloved God chose to become the Least of the least upon that Cross, taking on the pride of the Pharisee, the corruption of the tax collector, my unworthiness, the misery of of those with long faces at Church, and the viciousness and brutality of His time and mine.

     Why would God do this? The answer to his mystery is beyond all comprehension. But I do know that the main reason is the incredible love that God has for me and every person on Earth, no matter how far down the list we are.

     May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts.

Orlando Hernandez

Hold Unwaveringly to our Confession

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Commentators find it hard to establish the time and place the Epistle to the Hebrews was written. Most say it was written for early Jewish Christians trying to figure out their relationship to the religion of their ancestors.

I wonder if Jewish Christians in Rome would be especially among those for whom the letter was written. Rome is one of the places commentators say it might have originated..

The Jewish Christian community of Rome was a large community attached to Jerusalem and the temple, even Jews who had embraced a new faith. They would have been onlookers as Titus marched triumphantly into the Rome carting the spoils and slaves in chains from the Jewish wars and the destruction of the temple in 70. Afterwards, they would have watched the Colosseum bring built with the gold from the temple. Less than 5 years before some were singled out as renegade Jews and blamed by Nero for the great fired that had destroyed the city.

As we read the words from the Epistle to the Hebrews today I wonder if we hear words written especially for them. 

“Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works. We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  Hebrews  10:19-25   

It would be a hard time then for Jewish Christians in Rome “to put your light on a lamp stand,” as we read in today’s gospel . It was a time for laying low, “staying away from our assembly.”

Faith has to be professed in season and out of season. It’s never to be hid under a bushel. 

THE ADVENT WREATH

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The Advent wreath and its four candles, for the four Advent weeks, is a traditional devotion for this season. It originated in the folk practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples who gathered wreaths of evergreen and lit fires during the cold December darkness as a sign of hope for spring and new light.

Christians kept these popular traditions. By the 16th century Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From there, the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world.

Traditionally, the wreath consists of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Each day at home, the candles are lighted, perhaps before the evening meal– one candle the first week, and then another each succeeding week until December 25th. A short prayer may accompany the lighting.

Prayers for an Advent Wreath

The day the wreath is lit the leader may say:

Our nights grow longer and our days grow shorter.
We look at this candle and green branches–
and remember God’s promise to our world:
Christ, our Light and our Hope, will come.

Here are the words of Isaiah the prophet:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;
on those who lived in a land as dark as death a light has dawned.
You have increased their joy and given them gladness;
We rejoice in your presence.

Let us pray:

O God, we rejoice as we remember the promise of your Son,

Jesus Christ,

His light shines on us,

brightening our way, guiding us by his truth.

May Christ our Savior bring light into the darkness of our world, 

and to us who wait for his coming.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

1st Week

O Emmanuel, Jesus Christ,

Desire of all nations.

Savior of all peoples,

Come and dwell with us. Amen.

2nd Week

O King of all nations, Jesus Christ,

Joy of every heart,

Come and save your people. Amen.

3rd Week

O Key of David, Jesus Christ,

Open heaven’s gates,

Come and let your people enter. Amen.

4th Week

O Wisdom, Word of God, Jesus Christ,

You know all things,

Come and show us the way to salvation. Amen.

Citizens of Heaven

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It’s good to be reminded in these days following our contentious election on Tuesday that “ our citizenship is in heaven.” Paul tells that to the Philippians in today’s reading, but we should hear it too. 

But our citizenship is in heaven, 
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified Body 
by the power that enables him also 
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, 
in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved.  

We ‘re citizens of heaven; we belong somewhere else. We’re temporary, not permanent  residents here. In that place “ the Lord Jesus Christ will change our lowly bodies to conform to his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things  into subjection to himself.” (Philippians 3:17-4:1)

The responsorial psalm today tells us that even now we’re standing within the gates of a heavenly Jerusalem, the destiny of the tribes of the Lord. Our destiny.

St. Augustine wrote “The City of God” as barbarian armies sacked Rome and were invading North Africa. The world is coming to an end, some were saying, and they blamed Christianity for the critical times. But God is at work beyond human time and events, Augustine wrote. 

Go rejoicing to the city of God and the house of the Lord, we hear today. There is something beyond the politics of today at work. 

“Stand firm in the Lord, beloved. “ 

Letter to the Ephesians

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It’s so easy to see a world out of control these days, and to believe that nothing can be done. We’re going nowhere. 

The Letter to the Ephesians, read this week at Mass, says that’s not so. It’s written, not just to the  church at Ephesus, but to other churches as well, commentators says. So it’s written to our church too.

A great plan of God is at work from “the foundation of the world,” a plan for the “fulness of time,” a “mystery made known to us” in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We have this “word of truth” this gospel of our salvation, from Jesus himself. The Spirit he promised is the “first installment of our inheritance.”“First installment,” That’s what we working with now, It may not seem like much but it gets us where we’re going.

It promises more than we think or expect. “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of [your] hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, (Ephesians 1)

Every Monday of the four week cycle of the Liturgy of the Hours we read Ephesians 1, 3-10 at evening prayer, a reminder to see the day, however small and confusing it may be, as part of the great unfolding plan of God in Christ, our Lord.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
to the holy ones who are in Ephesus
and faithful in Christ Jesus:
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.

In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

St. Vincent of Lerins Speaks to the Modern Church

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By Gloria M. Chang

As the Synod on Synodality proceeds in Rome, we can all participate as the listening Church, the Bride of Christ, sitting at Jesus’ feet like Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38). Enveloped in his peace, we can attune our hearts and minds to the Spirit of truth sent to us from the Father by the Son (John 15:26). 

In a world of distracting noise, the Lord invites us to listen to his voice in Sacred Scripture, the Holy Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and personal prayer. Heard in the silence of the Spirit, the ancient words resonating from centuries past speak to the present generation with striking relevance. May the Lord grant us “ears to hear” his voice amid the din of the latest buzz (Matthew 11:14).

In a recent passage from the Office of Readings (October 11, 2024), St. Vincent of Lerins, a fifth-century French monk, seemed to jump out of the pages to address the Synod in Rome during its second week. In his vision, the organism of the Church grows and matures like a child to an adult, but preserves her essential form. Human skeletal structure, facial features, limbs, and organs develop with maturity but do not evolve into another species. The Body of Christ, the Church, in its heavenward journey also grows in the Holy Spirit into the perfect image of the Incarnate Son of God and not a distortion (2 Corinthians 3:18). May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, guide her sons and daughters in the Spirit to her Son, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

From the first instruction by Saint Vincent of Lerins, priest

The development of doctrine

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

Reference

The passage from St. Vincent of Lerins can be found in the Office of Readings for Friday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time.

Mystagogic Catechesis: Learning from Signs

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This week we’re coming to the end of the Easter season and the time devoted especially to Mystagogic Catechesis. Mystagogic Catechesis is an old term inspired by the time that Jesus after his resurrection began to wean his followers away from knowing him physically to knowing him through signs, like water, bread and wine, like gathering together to remember him in the scriptures, like seeing him in the poor and suffering who are wounded like him, also seeing his plan in the signs of the times they were living in. Mystagogic Catechesis is a catechesis for recognizing Jesus Christ in signs.

 Even though “they rejoiced at the sight of the Lord” the disciples of Jesus found this new way hard to understand. They saw Jesus physically less and less. We see their uneasiness, their questioning, in the gospel narratives read in the Easter season. He taught the patiently, but still they found it hard to see him in another way, through signs.

The Old Testament scriptures were important signs Jesus offered his disciples after rising from the dead. (Luke24L13-27) During the Easter season the scriptures are important signs offered to us. The resurrection appearances of Jesus from the four gospels, especially from the Gospel of John, are gospels we read in the early weeks of Easter. The meeting of Jesus with Nicodemus, the miracle of the loaves and fish, and the Last Supper Discourse of Jesus– all from John’s Gospel– are read on the following weeks. The Acts of the Apostles, describing the surprising growth of the church after the resurrection, is read all through the Easter season.

Those who follow Jesus share the experience of his disciples as they face the mystery of his death and resurrection.

In their catechetical sermons after easter, saints like Ambrose and Cyril of Jerusalem saw the unease in the newly baptized they taught.  “Is this it?” St. Ambrose begins one his catechetical sermons to newly baptized Christians.  “Is this it? You’re saying to yourself.” The Christian life is not Paradise, the saint reminds them.  The Christian life here on earth is not seeing completely or knowing everything clearly. The Christian life is a life of signs, signs that come with the sign of the cross.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the church gives Mystagogic Catechesis a more prominent place in her liturgy. In the past, Mystagogic Catechesis took place in the one week after Easter and was focused on the newly baptized.  In the church’s liturgy now Mystagogic Catechesis takes place, not for just one week, but for all the Easter season, and beyond the Easter season to every Sunday celebration. It is meant, not just for the newly baptized, but for the whole Christian community.

Mystagogic Catechesis is not limited to the seven sacraments, but is sacramental in the broad sense the early church understood the term. For example, it sees the church as a sacrament.  That’s why we read the Acts of the Apostles all through the Easter season, to understand the mystery of the  church. 

The church’s promotion of Mystagogic Catechesis also brings a shift in catechesis and preaching.  Mystagogic Catechesis is based on the scriptures, rites and prayers of the liturgy, not the catechism. It moves us into another way of teaching and praying. Not a new way, but a way found in the early church and in the church up to the Council of Trent. 

Mystagogic Catechesis puts an emphasis on the liturgy, its prayers, readings and signs, as the preeminent place where we learn and pray. “Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations…The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. (SC 7, 10)

The Genealogy of Jesus

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Advent began two weeks ago with Isaiah’s promise that all nations, along with his chosen people in exile, would hear God’s call to dwell in peace on God’s holy mountain. On December 17 our liturgy turns to Matthew’s gospel and the account of the genealogy of Jesus, “son of David, son of Abraham.” Matthew’s gospel traces his ancestry back to his Jewish beginnings. ( Matthew 1,1-17)

Whenever we read this gospel, filled with so many hard to pronounce names I am reminded of my mother.  She had a remarkable memory for relationships, whether her own family relations or others. Honestly, I often tuned out as she probed with delight family trees. After she died I realized I had lost my connection with countless relatives and people she had firmly in mind.  She would have appreciated the genealogy above.

This is not a superfluous project the evangelists are engaged in. They’re intent on describing the Incarnation of Jesus. He wasn’t isolated from humanity, above it all, but  he was part of the human family. And his family tree was not an army of saints; sinners are there for sure.

We will hear from some of his saintly forbears in the next few days, Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah. But let’s not forget the others.They are his family too. He loved them all.

In our family tree above Mary points to Joseph. Like her his ancestry goes back to David and Abraham. Appearing to him in a dream the angel says “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.”